Blaming Russia for Hillary’s flame out is absurd. The Russians did not create and lie about Hillary’s server. They did not force her to back the multilateral trade agreements, such as NAFTA and TPP. They didn’t set up the Clinton Foundation as a cash cow for the Clinton family. They did not force her to advocate imposing a No Fly Zone in Syria and having been a cheerleader for past wars, including Iraq and Libya. Vladimir Putin did not slip her a mickey and cause her to pass out at the 9-11 memorial, which fueled concerns about her health. And they did not infect her lungs and cause her to have extended coughing jags. They did not cause her to call Americans deplorables. They did not make her say that the coal industry should be shutdown. With that kind of record, coupled with her shrieking, screechy voice, why are folks surprised that she did not win? So now Democrats and several Republicans are in a lather over the Russians stealing the election for Trump. The list of conspiracy theorists pushing this nonsense include John McCain, Lindsay Graham, Angus King of Maine, Brent Budowsky and Adam Schiff. I defy anyone, to explain to me how Russian meddling gave Trump the win. The realities are this. First, as noted in the Budowsky email, the Clinton campaign came up with the idea of accusing Trump of being a stooge of Russia. They thought they’d get political bang out of that. They didn’t. Second, the hack of the DNC emails confirmed that the suspicions of many that the DNC and Hillary were collaborating to screw over Bernie and rig the election. That was not fake news. Cold, unwelcomed truth. That’s when this drum beat about the big, bad Russians started meddling in our election started. Why? To distract attention away from the ugly reality that the DNC and Hillary were cheating.

Hard to believe this needs to be said to people who lived thru the Iraq War. Partisanship is a hell of a drug.

Ben Welsh added,

Glenn Greenwald@ggreenwald

Anonymous Leaks to the WashPost About the CIA’s Russia Beliefs Are No Substitute for Evidence https://theintercept.com/2016/12/10/anonymous-leaks-to-the-washpost-about-the-cias-russia-beliefs-are-no-substitute-for-evidence/…

The intel didn't state that Iraq had WMDs. The Bush-Cheney WH made that misrepresentation.

451 replies5,395 retweets7,464 likes

Did they make that representation, Nance?

Where's your Committee hearing on that?

You became Speaker of the House in January 2007.

You held that post until January 2011.

Where's your Committee hearing on that?

Oh, right. You didn't care enough to hold a hearing.

You're just an aged gas bag whose tired ass shouldn't be in leadership -- or, for that matter, even in Congress.

You took impeachment off the table.

Despite the fact that we, in your district, wanted it.

You took impeachment off the table.

Despite the fact that you say the intel didn't state what Bush & Cheney said it did.

Exactly what qualifies as a high crime to you, Nancy?

At any rate, you may remember CIA Directer George Tenet called it a slam dunk.

What you may not remember, reported by Bob Woodward in 2004 and below repeated by CNN:

The book also reports that in the summer of 2002, $700 million was
diverted from a congressional appropriation for the war in Afghanistan
to develop a war plan for Iraq.Woodward suggests the diversion
may have been illegal, and that Congress was deliberately kept in the
dark about what had been done.

When you became House Speaker, what did you do about that, Nance?

Right.

You did nothing.

So sit your tired and worthless ass down.

Nobody needs to hear from you.

From CRAPAPEDIA:On October 1, 2002, the CIA delivered a classified National Intelligence
Estimate (NIE) assessing the threat represented by Iraq's WMD
activities. Three days later, CIA Director George Tenet published an
unclassified white paper on the subject of Iraq's WMD capabilities. Over
the next two weeks, a joint resolution authorizing the use of force was passed by both houses of Congress.

Same CRAPAPEDIA on the Senate Intelligence Committee's inquiry:

Phase I conclusions

The 511-page report focuses much of its attention on the October, 2002, classified National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) titled Iraq's Continuing Programs for Weapons of Mass Destruction. The report includes 117 formal conclusions, as well as supporting discussion and background information.

General conclusions on intelligence relating to Iraq's WMD and ties to terrorism

The
report's first conclusion points to widespread flaws in the October
2002 NIE, and attributes those flaws to failure by analysts in the
intelligence community:

Most of the major key judgments in the Intelligence Community’s
October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), Iraq’s Continuing
Programs for Weapons of Mass Destruction, either overstated, or were not
supported by, the underlying intelligence reporting. A series of
failures, particularly in analytic trade craft, led to the
mischaracterization of the intelligence.

Subsequent conclusions fault the intelligence community for failing
to adequately explain to policymakers the uncertainties that underlay
the NIE's conclusions, and for succumbing to "group think," in which the
intelligence community adopted untested (and, in hindsight,
unwarranted) assumptions about the extent of Iraq's WMD stockpiles and
programs. The committee identified a failure to adequately supervise
analysts and collectors, and a failure to develop human sources of
intelligence (HUMINT) inside Iraq after the departure of international
weapons inspectors in 1998. It also cited the post-9/11 environment as
having led to an increase in the intensity with which policymakers
review and question threat information.

The general conclusions were supported by both Dems and Repubs on the Committee.

Nancy wants to rewrite history because she's a hustler -- an elderly one with a bad hip and a lousy wig -- who wants to harness the CIA now for her own partisan goals.

There are people dying in Iraq.

Can Hillary's Love Slaves please find something better to do with all of our time.

Your bulls**t pretense of caring about anything other than Hillary isn't not working.

Your whores and loves slaves -- go work in your temple and leave the rest of us alone.

While garbage takes up attention, this is what many in the Arab world are discussing.

WASHINGTON
– U.S. Senators Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.,
chairman and ranking member of the Senate
Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, today applauded unanimous Senate
passage of legislation to improve veterans’ access to health care,
disability benefits, education and homelessness assistance, among other
important benefits for our nation’s veterans.

“I am proud that the Senate has acted on this legislation to help our veterans,”
said Isakson.
“Regardless of political party, we are showing our veterans that we are
on the same team when it comes to getting things right for them. With
today’s vote, we are demonstrating
our commitment to ensuring that our veterans receive what was promised
to them and their families. This legislation will improve veterans’
access to health care and benefits and is an important down payment on
the debt that we owe to the veterans of the United
States of America.”

“This bipartisan, comprehensive legislation continues our progress toward leaving no veteran behind,”
Blumenthal said.
“With 76 separate
provisions, it is broad in scope and scale. Hiring more mental health
counselors and emergency room doctors will mean more veterans receive
quality healthcare. Expanding eligibility for homelessness prevention
programs will provide critical
support to veterans at risk of homelessness. Extending critical
education benefits to surviving family members will further our promise
of education. Beginning work to help descendants of veterans exposed to
toxic substances will help heal the residual wounds
of war. But on these issues and so many more, we are only taking
another step in what must be a journey toward ensuring our veterans
receive the benefits they need and deserve.”

The Jeff Miller and Richard Blumenthal Veterans Health Care and Benefits Improvement Act of 2016 (H.R.6416)includes 76 bipartisan provisions that address a variety of areas in
veterans’ services that are in need of reforms or improvements. It
incorporates language from a number of previously introduced House and
Senate bills, including several provisions from
the Veterans First Act, which unanimously passed the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs in May 2016.

The
measure is named after retiring chairman of the House Veterans’ Affairs
Committee, Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., as well as outgoing Senate VA
committee ranking member Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.,
in tribute to their years-long commitment to serving veterans in
Congress.

Earlier this week, Isakson
delivered remarks on the Senate floor imploring
“members of the United States Senate to help us pass this down
payment on the promise and the debt that we owe to the veterans of the
United States of America.”

Following today’s early morning Senate vote and a strong vote of 419-0 by the U.S. House on Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2016, the
Jeff Miller and Richard Blumenthal Veterans Health Care and Benefits Improvement Act of 2016 now heads to the president’s desk for his signature.

Specifically, H.R.6416 will:

·
Streamline
portions of the process for veterans, their families and their
survivors to obtain disability compensation and benefits through the
U.S. Department
of Veterans Affairs (VA);

·
Expand
the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims from seven to nine judges
to help address the large backlog of veterans’ appeals that may soon
arrive
at the court;

·
Make
changes to the VA’s burial benefits and interment policies, including
expanding eligibility for presidential memorial certificates to certain
individuals
who served in reserve units of the Armed Forces, among others;

·
Provide
a much-needed extension of education benefits for surviving spouses who
lost a loved one on September 11, 2001, or during the early years of
the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq;

·
Improve
how the VA administers and approves education benefits for veterans and
allow mobilized reservists to keep their GI Bill eligibility when a
deployment
interrupts their schooling;

·
Modify
ownership requirements for small businesses participating in the VA
contract assistance programs and require the Department of Labor to
conduct
a five-year study of job counseling, training, and placement service
for veterans;

·
Make improvements to the VA’s health care services and benefits to include:

o
Ensuring preventative health services for veterans include access to adult immunizations for veterans who wish to receive them;

The Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs is chaired by U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., in the 114th Congress.

Isakson
is a veteran himself – having served in the Georgia Air National Guard
from 1966-1972 – and has been a member of the Senate VA Committee since
he joined the Senate in 2005. Isakson’s home
state of Georgia is home to more than a dozen military installations
representing each branch of the military as well as more than 750,000
veterans.

About Me

We do not open attachments. Stop e-mailing them. Threats and abusive e-mail are not covered by any privacy rule. This isn't to the reporters at a certain paper (keep 'em coming, they are funny). This is for the likes of failed comics who think they can threaten via e-mails and then whine, "E-mails are supposed to be private." E-mail threats will be turned over to the FBI and they will be noted here with the names and anything I feel like quoting.
This also applies to anyone writing to complain about a friend of mine. That's not why the public account exists.